Reflection
Whoever does God’s will is my brother, sister and mother.
Mark 3: 20-35
When Jesus announced his understanding of God’s intentions for human flourishing many could not overcome their concerns about his message. Even close relatives and religious insiders were confused by what he said. Some thought he had lost his mind. Families, or households were the primary social and economic units of first-century society. What he said threatened customary notions of social stability. Jesus redefined the criteria for who constituted his true family. He challenged deep cultural beliefs when he defined his true family not by blood relations or kinship ties but by doing the will of God.
Prayer
That all may be one.
Action
How far are you willing to extend your circle of relationships? Do you exclude others because they don’t fit in? What is your sense of kinship with those who try to live according to gospel principles? What can you do?
Suggested Reading
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?
Look, here these people seated around me are my mother and my brothers.
Whoever does God’s will is my brother, sister and mother.
Mark 3: 20-35
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
1Corinthians 12:12-13
Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. … Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing.
Hebrews 10:24-26
Unity happens when we walk together.
Pope Francis
Jesus gathers people into communities in which the mutual recognition as children of God is the foundation for social interaction, and the social feeling is mutual affirmation. In the community, each person does the same thing that Jesus originally did: loving another person on the level beyond any description, beaming full attention (with all one’s heart, soul, mind, strength) of positive regard. This can awaken the sense of selfhood in one who has not yet known it, and in this way the community expands.
Beatrice Bruteau
Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
With all things and in all things, we are relatives.
Sioux Proverb
Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another.
Henri Nouwen
The crosscultural communion of awakened souls may be a key to cocreating a sustainable future and living in harmony with the earth.
Frances Vaughan
Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other’s faults and failures.
Mother Teresa
We must restore the human community. We must grow in concert with the God who is within. We must be healers in a harsh society.
Joan Chittister
If you’re lucky you find your way into a spiritual community and you start to find the great teachers of all the ages who said the same thing. There’s only love, you’re made of love.
Anne Lamott
A spirited life is continually being expanded to include an ever-widening community. This requires that we cultivate an elastic heart, an erotic body, a generous mind, and a compassionate imagination to root out whatever keeps us from loving ourselves and the others with whose lives ours are intertwined.
Sam Keen